Orange peel

 

 I had some lovely coordinated fat quarters given to me and just couldn't decide what to do with them... I scoured Pinterest, auditioned a few different patterns, and finally settled on the orange peel. I was worried about the reds bleeding, so I did a test.

Exactly what I thought might happen! I let each piece soak in it's own bowl with vinegar/salt water, rinsed and repeated as necessary. Now, I was ready to begin.


I rounded up all my neutral backgrounds that I had kicking around, and decided that the best use of fabric would be to cut 4.5" background squares. Then I drew and cut my own leaf shape template to fit inside my square.

 

I used this technique, where you sew the leaf shape fabric to the fusible interfacing, right sides together, then turn it right side out, and iron it down onto the background, creating the effect of needle turn applique.

I have to admit, this project is much more time intensive than I anticipated. It took several episodes of Friends on Netflix to turn all 146 of the leaf shapes right sides out, and about two hours to press  them all onto the background squares.

Testing the layout... Loving how it looks! But now comes the dilemma of how to stitch down the peels.

This one is done on my sewing machine, applique stitch, with thread that matches the background piece.

This one, also by machine, but with thread that matches the peel. Maybe not the best example, as the fabric is busy, so the stitches seem invisible... Or is that the idea?

This one I hand stitched with embroidery floss, in the only color I had, which just happened to match. I think I like this best, but would like to try using the background color with this method, just to compare. I like the traditional look of the hand stitching showing, especially since the orange peel quilt is such a traditional pattern.

What are your thoughts on thread selection?